Abraham’s Faith

I sometimes wonder why we struggle so much over the concept of salvation by faith. Is it a sinful pride that insists we must do something to earn our salvation? Or is it the strange and even ridiculous idea that merely believing God is sufficient to make us righteous before Him?

On a human level, if I am misbehaving and my mother says to me, “You are a totally depraved brat who cannot stop being bad,” and I say to her, “Yes, you are correct. I believe you and everything else that you say.” Then in her eyes, I am considered a good little child?

That does not make sense, yet the Bible says this is at least part of what it means to be justified by faith. No wonder it also tells us that God’s ways are not our ways!

Abraham is called the father of faith. He was not the first to simply believe God, but his example is given to show what faith is like. Note that circumcision was a sign to identify those who believe God, just as baptism is evidence today of faith (usually). But this or any other works like it are not able to save sinners.

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.’ Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’

This passage goes on to explain that Abraham was considered righteous before he was circumcised, and that ritual was not his salvation but a sign or a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. In the same way, baptism does not save anyone. It is a sign or symbol of what has already happened.

God makes clear that salvation is not about circumcision, baptism, or anything we do. Righteousness is through faith, and God did it this way to make Abraham the father of those who walk in faith just as he did, circumcised or not. The promises God made to him were not about law-keeping, but about faith . . .

“For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring — not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all, as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many nations’ — in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” (Romans 4:1-17)

There is a lot in this passage, but the main truth is that Abraham believed God and his faith counted as righteousness. He obeyed God, both in going where God called him and by being circumcised, but these actions did not make him righteous — believing God did. His actions were the proof of his faith.

If my illustration has any merit, saying I believe my mother would grant me righteousness only if that faith produced a new life in me, one that changed my heart so I no longer desired to run my own way, but became obedient — as she desired. This illustration falls apart because my mother, nor any other human including myself, can change a person’s life from self-willed childishness to living for the Lord. Only God can do that!

There is another element to righteousness. When anyone believes God, they are saying YES to God’s way of salvation. When Abraham’s faith was tested, he discovered that God provides a substitute, a vivid reminder that there would be a Sacrifice to come — the Lamb of God who would die for the sin of the world.

Old Testament faith is believing God’s promise that a Messiah would come as their Lamb of sacrifice and ours. They looked forward in faith, trusting the Word of God, just as we look back in faith, trusting God who did what He promised in Jesus Christ. Not only are we to believe God, but put our faith in Christ as our Substitute, our Savior for sin. In believing, we are counted righteous in God’s sight.

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Jesus, Lamb of God, worthy is Your name. You died for me. You live for me. I believe all that God says — about my sinfulness, about Your powerful redemption, about all that You have done and will do. I also believe that in myself there is not good thing, but because of faith in You, I am made righteous. You are an awesome God, full of mercy and grace, worthy of faith, worthy of all my praise.

Is faith irrational?

Faith is tested when circumstances put the question to me: “Am I going to trust God in this? Or am I going to trust my intellect and take matters into my own hands?” I’ve too many examples to single out any one of them. However, the Bible tells of one test that is beyond anything I will ever experience.

The story is familiar and my questions are many. First, the story . . .

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”

So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.” (Genesis 22:1–14)

It seems to me the first test is believing that God would ask such a thing. Elsewhere in the Bible, He strictly forbids sacrificing children to any god. He also forbids murder. How could He ask Abraham to sacrifice his son, to actually kill him?

I’m also thinking Isaac had to have a great deal of faith, if not in God then in his dad. He was not an ignorant lad, and not only that, what was going through his mind when this man whom he trusted tied him on top of the wood and then raised a knife? There is no record that he screamed in protest!

How did Abraham know that God would provide a sacrifice? Even deeper, how did he know that God was speaking to him, first to ask him to do this, then to tell him to stop and not kill his son? And what makes him different than the kooks in books and television shows that perform rituals like this in the name of “God told me” when obviously they are out of their minds? Again, why would God test faith by asking Abraham to do something that He had forbidden?

Elsewhere, Abraham is spoken of as the father of faith, and all who believe in Jesus Christ are called his offspring. James 2:23 says that “the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness’ — and he was called a friend of God.” This man was not a nut case!

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Jesus, I know these questions will be answered someday. I also know that You ask me to walk in faith. You have asked me to do things that don’t make sense at the time, but later show me the wisdom behind them. None of this is about rationale or about ‘hearing voices’ that bring out sinful responses. All of it reveals to me that walking with You means paying attention, knowing Your voice, willing obedience, and no worries about the outcome as long as I am certain about what I am hearing. I know what You tell me is Your will. How do I know? You said, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me . . . .” Keep me alert and obedient, even when what You ask may not make sense.

Faith vs. Reason

Last week someone told me of a perplexity in her Christian life. She was doing something she thought was right, but her actions were getting her in trouble with others. She asked two godly people for counsel. One of them told her she needed to stop what she was doing. The other said that she was doing the right thing and needed to continue.

It is usually wise to seek godly counsel, but this time she was confused. I told her that when this happens to me, God often is trying to teach me to seek His will alone, and not to rely on others.

While I don’t know the hearts of those who gave this conflicting advice, I do know my own heart. Sometimes the eyes of faith see one clear way, but the eyes of reason cannot make sense of it. This happens to God’s people. Consider Abraham when God tested his faith by sending him up a mountain to sacrifice his son. That made no sense. For one thing, God forbade human sacrifice. However, Abraham trusted Him and did what God told him. Of course, at the last moment God stopped him from killing the boy and explained the test. For that, Abraham is called the Father of faith. I’m not sure what I would have done. Maybe I would give in to reason, which likely is why God has not tested me like this.

Ezra, another leader in the Old Testament, also struggled with faith and reason. He was taking a group of people home. They had been released from their captivity in Babylon. However, the way was filled with robbers and enemies. He sought the Lord on the matter.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our goods. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and horsemen to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king, “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” So we fasted and implored our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty. (Ezra 8:21–23)

Reason said that robbers and marauders would harm them and that the king would have given them soldiers for protection. Faith said God could and would protect them. Faith and reason were in conflict.

Mix into that one more conflict. Ezra had told the king that his God would take care of him. Asking the king for soldiers would be hypocrisy, a denial of his proclaimed faith in God. It seems that Ezra’s pride was involved, but true faith is not about pride. How can any sane person be vain about trusting God when it makes no sense at all to trust Him?

I’ve had this happen in small and big concerns in my own life. One time it was about a house that we hoped to rent. Someone else got there first, so reason said getting that house was out of the question. However, faith persisted. I knew that house was ours, and in a few days the call came. The other deal fell through and the house was indeed ours.

Faith is not presumption. Presumption does not see or consider the negatives. It is based on wanting something so bad that no other options are considered. Faith is more about knowing in your heart that God is true — when your head says you are daft. 

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

These words in this verse, assurance and conviction, both find their source in God. That is, faith’s assurance comes from Him, not merely from our desires. The normal idea of hope is “I hope so. . . .” but in the Bible, hope is not like that. It is more like the inheritance written in a will that has not yet been bestowed, but it is mine. It is like being given the deed to a house that I’ve not yet moved into, or the keys to a car that I’ve not yet driven. Biblical hope is a sure thing, and assurance is that knowledge that it is certain. It is being convinced or convicted that even though I cannot see the money, or the house, or the car, I know it is mine. It is being totally certain of whatever God says He will do, because it is God who said it.

This is what faith is — knowing God and what God wants. Reason may shake that assurance and argue with it, but the heart knows. Abraham knew God and knew that He would keep His promises to give him grandchildren from his son. If he sacrificed the boy, he had no idea how God would do this, but he knew that He would. Ezra also knew that God would take care of them. Reason said the odds were against it, but when pitting God against odds, God wins.

My friend must seek God to find out what He wants her to do. Reason works to trip her up, but once she gets His word on the matter, her confusion will go away. It may be impossible to comprehend how that can be possible while in the middle of the muddle, but once faith takes over, God is able to make sense of nonsense and give reasonableness to anything that at first seems unreasonable.

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Father, I’m so glad that my faith does not depend on my own ability to reason or figure things out. Because of sin, reason is flawed. Pride, I-wants, fear, logic and all sorts of supposing can lead me off in many directions too. Yet Your instructions are almost always simple and straightforward. They may not seem to be sensible, but after many years of experience, You have shown me that once I obey You, I can look back on each test to my faith and see how Your will makes so much more sense than anything else that came to mind. Besides seeing that reasonableness after obedience, sometimes You also give me the privilege of seeing You smile.

Tested Faith

God asks that His people give up all idols and false gods, which is entirely reasonable. But what about when He asks us to give up something that is precious and not an idol? He tested Abraham’s faith in this way. 

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Most people know the story. This man was asked to take his son to a mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. In my mind, would God even make such a request? He condemned human sacrifice as evil and He asks this man whom He had chosen to do such a thing? This makes no sense to me.

Another amazing part of this story is that Abraham knew that it was God doing the asking. If such a thought came into my head, I would assume it was from Satan or demonic, or at the very least my own sinfulness. Never would I imagine God asking this, but Abraham knew it was God. And without question or hesitation, he did as he was told.

On the mountain, with the knife in his hand, he must have been thinking about the promises that God made to him over the years. Through Isaac, he would father numerous offspring. God would not let Isaac be dead because God keeps His promises. Abraham may have had the knife raised when the Lord stopped him and pointed to a ram caught in a nearby bush — the substitute sacrifice.

When the apostle Paul commented on Abraham’s faith in Galatians, he said, “Those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. . . . Those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham” (Galatians 3:7, 9).

In a spiritual sense, anyone who lives by faith in God is one of Abraham’s offspring. This man is the father of all faithful believers. That indicates that people with faith like his may also experience and survive severe trials. True faith trusts God and believes that He will keep His promise and accomplish His purposes without making one mistake.

Each day holds the potential for life-changing circumstances. I can imagine accidents, illnesses, and all sorts of calamities — if I let myself. Instead, the God of Abraham tells me, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7).

This is not merely, “Don’t worry, be happy” but trusting God with all my concerns, even thanking Him for all things, particularly for His sovereign power that controls whatever happens. When I am trusting, praying, and thanking God, He gives me a settled heart with a peace that does not even make sense.

As Abraham took Isaac up that mountain so many years ago, was he praying like that? I am certain that he was, and thankful that the same faith is still available as a gift from God.

There is faith, and then there is faith . . .

Abraham is called the father of faith, yet when God promised to give him and his wife a son and it wasn’t happening, he slept with Sarah’s maid so it would. How can he be called a man of faith? It seems that he did not trust God, at least in that instance.

Is faith a robotic condition where the heart says, “Yes, God” to everything, without any struggle? Can a Christian say he believes, but fail to act like it?

Of course. This is the struggle between flesh and spirit. I’ve had times in my life where what I believe in my heart and what I was doing in my emotions didn’t match up. God promises that he will take care of my needs, including finances. I believe the verse that says, “God shall supply all your need according to His riches” (Philippians 4:19), yet I have been anxious when financial troubles came my way. If I believe God, why does that happen?

My devotional reading today says that professing to believe what God has said is much easier than really trusting Him. Other Christians might say our faith can be firm in our heads but has not reached our hearts. When I think I believe God, but act as if I don’t when the tests come, I wonder what kind of faith I have. Is it real? Or am I just telling myself that I believe?

Abraham eventually got to the heart of things. He realized that “helping God” didn’t work, and that is an important lesson. If I ask God for anything, I must wait for Him to provide the answer. Unless He asks me to do something, I need to keep my mitts out of it.

Abraham learned that and as a result, his faith became solidified. The Bible says, “He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore ‘it was accounted to him for righteousness’” (Romans 4:20-22).

God is faithful as Abraham believed. He saw the proof of it when Isaac was born.

Perhaps the key to this faith from the heart is in that little phrase “giving glory to God.” In my flesh, I want to be able to say, “Look what I did.” When I fully trust God, I cannot say that. If I keep out of it and He provides all that I need, I must give Him the glory. I cannot share in any of it because I had nothing to do with the provision.

God also asks me to walk by faith, not by sight. My faith should be based on who He is, not on what I can see. At the same time, He also knows my frailties and knows that sometimes I need to “see” His faithfulness. He is so gracious! For instance, as He faithfully provides my financial needs, my anxiety about that is replaced with confidence. He has proven His promise and I do not need to worry.

The proper response to that provision is another matter. It is too easy to say “I trust God and do not worry” as if I had anything to do with it. This is the flesh again, trying to jump in and take some glory. However, the only correct response is, “Gods takes care of me and lifts my burdens, even the burden of worry. I am safe in His hands as He teaches me to trust Him with all my heart.”

Links to the past

History and math were never my strengths, and for that reason, I would not have noticed something in today’s Scripture reading had not the notes pointed it out. Most of the reading consists of genealogies about Noah’s descendants. They look like this:

When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters. After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. (Genesis 11:24-26)

Two things stand out, at least now that I’ve read the notes. One is that as time goes by, the ages of the fathers are shorter and they became fathers earlier in life. The other is that there are not very many men in the link between the first man Adam and Abram (later called Abraham).

In my mind, I’d imagined a world doing its own thing apart from God much the same after the flood as it was before. I’d also pictured many, many generations before Abram appeared on the scene. However, there are only twenty-five years between the death of Noah’s youngest son, Shem, and the birth of Abram. That is not very long.

This is significant because the Bible later reveals that God spoke to Abram (and likely his father), telling them to leave the land of Ur where they lived and go to a land He would show them. In faith, they obeyed. In those early days of human life, not everyone followed idols.

Modern people seem to think that back then, which is about 1950 - 2000 years after creation (adding up the ages given in the genealogies), that all people were primitive cave dwellers who superstitiously worshiped gods like volcanos, the sun, and the wind. It is assumed that the concept of a Creator God gradually evolved. While many did worship idols, the Bible reveals that faith in God began early. Even as Adam knew God, so did Enoch, and Noah and others, including Abram.

Of this man Abram, it says, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). This is repeated and explained in the New Testament where Abraham is called the father of faith and held up as a model for all generations.

How is this practical for me? For one thing, it gives my faith deep roots. What I believe began a very long time ago.

This also verifies once again that faith is about believing God, not about doing works to get on the good side of Him. As Romans 4 and James 2 say, once a person’s heart is committed to believe in and trust the Lord, good deeds will follow, but they are not the way to God; I must follow to Him by faith, just as Abraham did.

The other thing is that I feel connected to Bible history. It begins what seems like eons ago, yet I feel as if I could reach out and take hold of Abraham’s hand. We are related by faith. He is my brother in the family of God, but also more. Romans 4:11 says that, “he is the father of all who believe . . . in order that righteousness might be credited to them.”

God gives me a sense of timelessness and solidarity in knowing these things. My history is connected to ancient history, and by doing the math, I realize that this connection is very close to the creation of man and the beginning of time. How incredibly cool is that!